“No Scheme More Monstrous Could have been Invented”

This chapter examines the New York City Slave Conspiracy of 1741 in the context of slave election ceremonies, or Pinkster Day as it was called in New York. These ceremonies would provide the basis for Black politics and resistance in the North throughout the antebellum period. The chapter argues that the conspiracy trials that sent dozens of enslaved and free people to their deaths were motivated by fears that Black cultural power could stimulate insurrection.